This invention relates to rain gauges.
Rain gauges are known that include a rain collector and large numerals and or words indicating the height of the water in the rain collector. In this class of rain gauge, the rain collector has indications, such as lines, on it to indicate the graduations of water height and the numerals are large enough to be read from several yards away.
One prior art type of rain gauge in this class of known rain gauges includes an adjusting mechanism at the top to collect water from a wider area than the cross section of the rain collector so that the water rises at a multiple of the rainfall per square inch but in proportion to it so there is room for larger numbers on the tube itself to indicate the amount of rain per square inch that has fallen. This type of device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,606 granted Aug. 13, 1991 to Robert C. Geschwender, et al.
With the prior art it was possible to print large numbers on the curved surface because of its expanded scale; however, with a rain gauge with a normal scale and low cost glass tube collector, there is insufficient area to print large clear numbers that can be easily read due to the reduced size and the curved surface of the collector.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a novel rain gauge.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a rain gauge in which it is exceptionally easy to read the numerals indicating the amount of rain that has fallen.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a rain gauge in which large numerals on a substantially flat surface are used to indicate the height of the water in a rain collector.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a rain gauge with an exceptionally clear indication of water height indicated on the holder for the rain gauge.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a rain gauge that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture as compared to prior art rain gauges.
In accordance with the above and further objects of the invention, the rain gauge of this invention comprises a water holder arranged with a flat surface to indicate with large flat numerals and/or words the height of the rain in the holder. In the preferred embodiment, the rain holder is a transparent tube with indicator marks upon it showing height of water and some of which indicate a scale below the water level. The tube can be separated from the flat surface that indicates the level of the water to facilitate emptying and cleaning and the like. Thus it includes a mounting means for the water holder that is mounted together with the flat surface with the large numerals or other lettering upon it. In the preferred embodiment, the flat surface is integrally formed with the mounting means for the water holder. Means are also provided to mount the rain gauge upright.
The large numerals cooperate with the indications on the water holder to indicate the level of the water as the water rises. The surface of the water is clearly indicated. This is done in the preferred embodiment by having the indications such as calibration and water level indicator lines seen through a curved water holder, thus providing magnification for the indications seen through the curved surface and the water up to the surface of the water above where the indications will appear much smaller. However, any other mechanism might be used such as a float of the type described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,606.
From the above description, it can be understood that the rain gauge of this invention has advantages of being easily readable from a distance and easily manufactured.